Can we please put pool issue finally to rest?

We can just imagine a collective eye-roll by a few members of the Birmingham City Commission because we are again visiting, hopefully for the last time, the issue of a pool in the new home for Next on E. Lincoln in the city.

We bring this issue up once again because it was the subject of a recent letter to the commission from the YMCA which reaffirmed that it is leaving the city and has decided against the offer from the city to have the outgoing nonprofit continue to operate the existing pool in the lower level of the Next building. We can’t recall the offer to operate the pool as part of a recent public discussion or decision by the city commission. We do know that at least a couple members of the city commission met in recent months at the DAC in Detroit with at least one member of the YMCA, so we can only assume that the letter was an outgrowth of that non-public meeting.

We know from correspondence and citizen comment at city commission meetings that there is still a small but vocal lobbying group which bemoans the loss of the YMCA and more specifically the pool.

In this space earlier this year we said the following:

City officials spent over two years attempting to delve into a proposal that would have turned the E. Lincoln building into a community center, then the efforts shifted and the city considered building a new center at the site with a price tag of $30 million and most likely more, paid off by taxpayers over 20-25 years. A prime example of wasted time and considerable taxpayer funds.

Commissioners finally, last October, came to their senses and refocused their attention on a new home for Next, with incremental changes and improvements to the building, much like the library board has done over the last several years with the Baldwin Public Library.

Then we heard that special interests in the city and on the commission wanted to make one last attempt to alter the plan for the Next home by keeping the pool in the basement level still operating. The faulty logic was that Next won’t be using the lower level of the building when they first move in, so why not put it to use.

Sorry. We say to the special interests (including some rogue members of the commission who may personally use the very aged pool) and political gadflies who cannot let this project proceed as it should – no one expected the lower level of the building to be transformed on day one.

Voters were asked and gladly approved a three-year millage – worth about $3.5 million – to fix up the existing building for use primarily by Next. In fact, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in May of 2023 was entered into by the city and Next that provided that 75 percent of the building would be used by the senior services group.

When the building was first purchased, unofficial plans called for the pool to be filled in, and then changes could be made on an incremental basis.

So to those still insisting that a pool must be part of the Next building, we say – give it a rest. That train has left the station. Move ahead with what voters were told was going to happen to the E. Lincoln building. A new home for Next. And a home unencumbered with issues like the pool.